Leave it to a slow Friday during the summer for one of the biggest news stories of the day to be a picture that purports to show President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy checking out the backside of a young lady at the G8 summit.
I actually first saw this picture yesterday when a friend told me, “dude, you need to check out the homepage of Drudge Report!” Sure enough, the site was featuring the picture atop its homepage, with the wildly mischievous headline “Second Stimulus Package!” The story is apparently of such significance that it’s still the headline on the site, nearly 24 hours later.
The problem with this intriguing image and caption is that it now appears to have been rather manipulative. By morning, video of the event had surfaced, and it becomes fairly clear after watching it that the still frame photo happens to catch Obama at a moment where the perception of ogling could certainly be created. But in reality, he was simply in the midst of gesturing to help someone down a step. As for Sarkozy, as the ABC News anchor jokes, it’s not quite as clear: